The Sauber team principal, Peter Sauber, has categorically rejected claims that a conspiracy was at the heart of the Malaysian Grand Prix because of his Swiss team's links with Ferrari. Sauber missed out on a historic win by 2.263secs as the promising Mexican driver Sergio Pérez pushed Ferrari's Fernando Alonso all the way to the line at the Sepang International Circuit.

At one stage on lap 40 Pérez had closed to within 1.3secs, only for the team not to follow Ferrari's lead and bring him in when the conditions demanded a change from intermediate to dry tyres. Then on lap 50 Pérez made an error when he ran wide at turn 14 when he was poised to pass Alonso after cutting the gap to 0.5secs.

One theory was that because Sauber are powered by Ferrari engines and Pérez is a product of the Maranello marque's young driver academy, the 22-year-old was called to file in behind Alonso. Fuel was added to the fire by Pérez's engineer being heard over the team radio telling him "we need the position".

Asked about the message, Sauber said: "He meant that we needed the result. It's a misunderstanding. It was because that behind us, all the midfield teams, our main competitors, scored points.

"So it was important we kept the result." Pressed on whether Pérez had been told to stay behind Alonso, Sauber said: "No. We told him 'be careful we need the result'." Sauber was then quizzed on whether there had been any discussion with Ferrari, and he said: "No. 100%, no, 100% nothing.

"We had no discussion about Checo [Pérez] nor the position."

The conspiracy theory threatened to take the gloss off what was a stunning drive from Pérez as he achieved his finest result in F1 and Sauber's highest position since the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix when Nick Heidfeld was runner-up, at a time when the team were heavily backed by BMW.

Pérez proved himself in very tough conditions with the race being suspended for 51 minutes after nine laps due to heavy rain. In high humidity the track did not start to dry out until near the end, yet Pérez managed to reel in Alonso on inters and dry tyres, only to fall just short.

Sauber said: "He drove an outstanding race and rose above our expectations. What surprised me most was the fact he was very competitive in all conditions and with all tyres.

"Whether they were wet, intermediate or dry tyres he was always one of the fastest drivers on track, if not the fastest."

Pérez said: "I think I could have won it, definitely. I was catching Fernando toward the end of the race, but I ran wide enough to go on to the wet and I just lost control of the car, went straight and lost the fight for the victory.